Russo Italian Pastry Shop

It'll take willpower to get past cases filled with cannoli, cookies, cakes, tarts and other pastries, but if you do, you'll find a freezer full of house-made frozen soups and entrees tucked in the corner of this traditional Italian bakery. Foods are prepared by Rosanna Russo, the bakery's matriarch, and most taste like Sunday dinner at nana's.

The list of Southern Italian favorites includes eggplant or chicken parmigiana, manicotti and meatballs, baked ziti, sausage and peppers, lasagna, stuffed shells and more, all served with a hearty marinara sauce. Other choices include a changing mix of soups such as lentil, Italian wedding soup, pasta e fagioli and minestrone. Russo's even makes a nod to the low-carb craze with chicken and fish dishes topped with veggies and cheese and packaged sans pasta or rice.

Follow heating directions on the containers (thaw, then bake for 30 minutes), and you'll end up with tasty comfort foods. Pasta is al dente, ingredients are fresh and seasoning is mild enough for most palates. The freezer case also holds a selection of sauces, pizza dough, braciola (rolled, stuffed beef) and roasted peppers, along with bags of tortellini and ravioli. Over at the bakery counter, you'll find heat-and-eat pizzas and stuffed breads.

Russo Italian Pastry Shop is open Tuesday through Saturday, 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., and Sunday, 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The bakery is closed Monday.

-- KORKY VANN

Recent Picks

Orchard Hill Market, 875 W. Main St., Branford, 203-488-2573: The case at Orchard Hill is as long as the back of the store, and there are dozens of choices for to-go dinners, with enough variety for an entire Asian-influenced meal, a low-carb dinner or a seasonal combination of salad and housemade soups.

Porky Pete's, 90 Plains Road, Essex, 860-767-1021: Atkins and South Beach followers and barbecue aficionados will eat well here. On Tuesday and Saturday mornings, Pete and Selene Sweck fire up the smoker in the yard behind their takeout emporium and slowly smoke ribs and the seasoned pork butts and shoulders that become pulled pork. Porky Pete's side dishes -- coleslaw, potato salad, baked beans, mashed potatoes, corn bread -- are good enough to make the centerpiece of a meal.

Zocco's Italian Deli & Pizza, 555 Day Hill Road, Windsor, 860-285-0031: A pizza restaurant in a strip mall is old news for most takeout fans, but the garlic-fragrant air in the parking lot by this eatery draws us inside, where we find comfort-food standards -- grinders, pies and calzones -- along with a number of surprises. An order of grilled vegetables added to the antipasto turns the basic dish into the culinary high point of our dinner.